Late last month NVIDIA launched its first card in the next generation GeForce 9 series of graphics cards and the manufacturers suggested retail price was set modestly between $170 - $190 range. In response to NVIDIA's 9600GT launch AMD cut prices on its latest offerings. The price of the HD 3870 model was cut down to $189 from the original $249 mark while the pricing on the HD 3850 was lowered $30 to $169.

Since the launch, NVIDIA's GeForce 9600GT produced some attractive benchmarks numbers as it comes in just behind the 8800GT in many PC game tests and even claims a few steps past AMD's HD 3870 in a handful of PC game tests.

Since then retailers such as Newegg cut pricing below the original MSRP of $169-189, down to $150 on NVIDIA GeForce 9600GT models.

In response to this, AMD is set to cut prices yet again on its Radeon HD 3800 line. Independent retailers tell DailyTech they are receiving partner pressure to drop the price on these cards below the corporate pricing set just a few weeks ago.

These retailers state the pressure is a direct retaliation to the GeForce pricing, which is also uniformly below the MSRP.

Radeon HD 3850 are said to hit prices as low as $140 with the HD 3870 trailing behind at $160 to compete with the GeForce 9600GT.

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